Provoking Thought. Providing Thoughtfulness.

Why such a long campaign period?

The mainstream media spent a good portion of this past week attacking the Prime Minister for his “early call” of the federal election campaign. Pressed by reporters at his initial scrum of the election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had this to say.

“Everybody knows the election date and the campaigns of the other parties, as near as I can tell, have already begun.

“I feel very strongly…that those campaigns need to be conducted under the rules of the law. That the money come from the parties themselves, not from government resources, parliamentary resources or taxpayer resources.”

“In terms of the advantages this party has, in terms of the fact that we’re a better financed political party, a better organized political party, and better supported by Canadians — those advantages exist whether we call this campaign or not.

“What we do by calling this campaign is making sure that we are all operating within the rules and not using taxpayers’ money directly.”

Great points. Who would argue with the comment, the money spent on politicians campaigning should “come from the parties themselves, not from government resources, parliamentary resources or taxpayer resources”?